Optical fiber connectors are used to optically couple at least two optical fibers. To this end, an optical fiber connector supports an end portion of at least one optical fiber. The end portion of each optical fiber has a polished end face. When two optical fiber connectors are operably engaged, the end faces of the corresponding optical fibers are placed in close proximity and in a confronting orientation to facilitate the communication of light from one fiber to the other through the optical fiber end faces.
The optical fiber end faces need to be kept clean to ensure optimum optical transmission and to avoid damage to the optical fibers when the optical fibers are placed into close proximity using optical fiber connectors. Prior art optical fiber cleaning techniques focus on cleaning the optical fiber end face only. However, contaminants from other parts of the optical fiber connector often find their way to the optical fiber end face after the end-face cleaning process.